Light Upon a Legend
by SpartaLazor
Summary: Trey and Jakob desire for the life of riches, and will even resort to stepping on the wrong side of the law to get it. Kiera and Sarah simply want to live normal lives after the war that ruined so many. Brought together by fate, these four embark on a quest of a lifetime, traveling through thousands of miles of space in search of the UNSC's most prized possession, Spartan 117.
1. Hired

**SpartaLazor : Well, here's the first chapter of Dejae's and my co-op. Dejae writes for Kiera's POV, and I write Treys. Hope you enjoy.**

_Chapter One: Hired_

***Trey's POV***

"What is this?"

"Take a guess."

I stared down at the disassembled metal mess on the gray workbench in front of me. It was a gun, that much I knew, but what type of gun I had no idea. "Um...a pistol?"

Jakob sighed, and turned back to the computer on the counter. "Yeah, but what kind?"

"Um...9mm?"

We were in our little gun shop, Gun Runners, which rested in a small town right outside of a much larger city of New Pheonix. We sold guns here, obviously, and some attachments and other assorted modifications. On the exterior, we looked completely legit. But, there was more then meets the eyes.

Once again, Jakob released a disappointed sigh, and smacked the counter. "You're an idiot, Trey," he told me. "That's an M6C."

I folded my arms. "How was I supposed to know?" I asked in defense. "You took it apart. I can't tell."

He stood up from his old wooden stool, and walked over. After inspecting a single piece of the gun, he shrugged. "It's written right here on the side of the gun." He tossed the piece back to me.

I took the piece, which was the slide, and inspected the writing on the side. "Hmph. So it does," I said, and then dropped the piece back onto the work table. "And what makes that important?"

Jakob rolled his eyes. "We work in a gun shop. If you want to be successful, then you need to know a little something about guns." He gestured to the pile of shining silver parts on the table. "Clean it, and put it back together."

I glanced down at the hopeless myriad of pieces. There was no way I could put it back together. I had trouble putting a silencer on a rifle, which is far easier than making a pistol. "Can I get some sort of diagram or drawing? Something that tells me how?"

"You need to figure it out on you own, Trey," Jakob said, patting my shoulder. "What if the Covenant were invading, and you needed an M6C to safe your life?"

Pointing over to a rack of seven M6C's, I said, "I'd take one of those."

"And if they were there?"

"Then I'd go for a M90." I pointed to the rack on the other side of the room.

"And if there weren't any guns around but the disassembled one in front of you?"

I shrugged. "Then I'd be screwed."

Before Jakob could make a comment, the door opened and a man wearing an expensive black suit entered. He looked around, and purused the weapons that were displayed. We were only allowed to sell weapons that the UNSC had permitted, which wasn't an impressive selection. M90's were the most powerful thing we had.

"Can I help you, sir?" Jakob asked, abandoning my side and walking over to the man. "Do you have anything particular in mind?"

"Indeed I am," the man replied, his voice thick with a southern accent. "But, I don't see it in here..."

"Might I ask what it is? We might have it in the back." Jakob was desperate for customers. Several others had the exact same set up as us, but they actually had permits from the UNSC to sell the good stuff, such as SRS's, BR55's, M932's, and all that. We sold those on the down low. Illeagally.

The man tugged at his jacket. "Well, I'm actually hunting down an M6 Grindell Galilien Non-Linear Rifle. You wouldn't happen to have one of those? I'm willing to pay twice the asking price."

Jakob did the mental math. "Yeah, I think we actually have a Spartan Laser in the back." He turned to me. "We have one, right?"

I thought back for a second. "We have three, but Wheeler already has a claim on one of them, and the another needs to be fixed, but the last one's fine."

"Excellent," the man said, in a somewhat omnious tone. "And may I see you USNC permit to sell them?"

Jackob bit his lip. "We...um...left it at home?"

"So you don't have one?"

Mentally cursing, Jakob was quick to respond. "The thing is, we're not exactly big fans of the UNSC. If you don't tell anyone, anything you want in the store is yours for free."

The man shook his head. "No no. This worked out much better than I thought it would. I never thought I would find some fellow Insurrectionists that can supply our branch in New Pheonix with some weapons."

We weren't with the Insurrection. Jakob and I both hated the UNSC, since they simply abandoned our families on Reach. They didn't care about them at all.

"So, man, what do you say," the man asked, holding his hand out to Jakob. "Will you be willing to supply us with the weapons we need, for a better cause?"

Jakob didn't even need to think on that one. He almost immediantly shook the man's hand. "We have a deal," he said. "We have almost everything the UNSC has, and some that they don't."

The man raised his eyebrows. "I assume that you're talking about..."

Nodding, Jakob went over to the wall behind counter, and tapped in a code on the seemingly out-of-place keypad there. After a couple of seconds, the doors slid open, revealing a room with several rows of weapons. Our finest wares.

Covenant Carbines lined the walls on rackes, alongside an occasional Beam Rifle, Focus Rifle, and Needle Rifle. Plasma Pistols filled three crates in the corner, with Plasma Rifles and Plasma Repeaters lined up side by side on the table in the middle. Spikers and Maulers occupied the shelves on the far side. A sole Brute Shot sat amongst them.

The smile on the man's face suddenly widened. "That's exactly what I needed to see."

I watched the whole thing. Jakob was acting unnormal. He never even made deals with someone that he didn't know. But yet he jumped the gun here. The man cast a quick look over his shoulder out the window.

I followed his line of sight, and saw three Warthogs pull up. Two were the troop-transport kind, with the room for soldiers in the back. The other was mounted with a machine gun, which was manned by a female Marine.

Armed Marines jumped from their vehicles, and made their way over to the front of the shop. "Jake," I said, as my heart raced. We were busted.

"What?" He didn't even know what was going on. He was too busy inspecting the alien weapons.

The man in the suit smiled. "Game's over," he simply commented, as the Marines burst into the building, weapons raised at Jakob and I. "You lose."

"Wha...?" Jakob asked, before a Marine shoved his rifle into his face, and another grabbed his arms and slapped handcuffs on them. "What is this?"

The man chuckled. "I am Colonel August Roberston," he said. The Colonel folded his hands behind his back and continued. "I'm with the UNSCDI; the United Nations Space Command Department of Investigation," he clarified. "We recieved some information about you little shop from one of our undercover agents, and we're here to bring it down."

A tall, muscular Marine grabbed my arm and pinned it behind my back. I didn't resist, mainly because of the BR55 aimed right at my head. Once he locked the cuffs on me, the Marine grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the Colonel alongside Jakob.

"Mr. Barnes," the Colonel said to Jakob, looking at me in disbelief, "I still find it rather...unfather-like to drag your son into this illegal buisness. Certainly, you ran the risk of him getting arrested. And that's exactly what happened."

I rolled my eyes. If he thought that was unfather-like, he should've been there when I was out in space, salvaging the illeagal weapons from wrecked UNSC ships. That was far more risky.

"Sergeant, I want the building searched and cleared," the Colonel ordered. "If anything other than this stash is found, report to me."

"Yes sir," the sergeant replied, and rounded up her troops for the search.

The Colonel motioned to the Marine guarding me. "Take him out to the hog while we question Mr. Barnes here. We need to see if their stories match."

I began to mentally question his words, since it's hard to lie about the Covenant weapons in your store, that you purposely displayed. The Marine shoved me out the door, and up against the Warthog. The woman on the machine gun of the third Warthog glanced down in my direction, and swung the giant gun over towards me, to deter any thoughts of escape.

"What's going on, Trey?" a new voice asked.

I groaned. Of course. She would have to come now. "Oh...hi Lindsey," I said, shifting my hands that were bound by the cuffs. "What's up?" I asked, trying to act casual.

Lindsey Concorde was the same age as I was, seventeen, and arguably the prettiest girl in the whole city, on my standards. All of my friends had a pool going of how long it was going to take for me to ask her out. So far, it had been over three years since they started, and the total winnings were reaching around 300.

She blinked, and then brushed a lock of bright red hair out of her face with her free hand. In her other hand, there were a stack of the three video games she was coming to give to me. Her blue eyes stared into mine. "What's going on? There's Marines, and Warthogs, and...are you handcuffed?"

"Oh, these?" I asked, moving my hands off to the side of by back so she could see the cuffs. "Nothing more than a fashion statement." For some odd reason, whenever I was in a stressful situation, I seemed to become somewhat of an ass.

Lindsey sighed. "I'm being serious. What the hell is going on here? Did you kill someone?"

"Ah," the Colonel said as he exited our shop, done with questioning Jakob. "Young miss, are you aquanited with our prisoner here?"

"Prisoner?" Lindsey echoed, turning to the Colonel. "Why is he a prisoner?"

"Classified," the Colonel simply replied. "But, if he doesn't give me a full confession, then I might have to interview you for some information."

"Don't bother," I said. "She wouldn't know anything about what you want to know."

"Well then," he Colonel stared as Lindsey. "I'm afraid that you'll have to leave, miss. I don't want to have to arrest you for interfering with a military operation."

"Um..." Lindsey turned and ran back the way she came, hightailing it back to her mother. Even though she was a nice girl, she was still too dependant on her mother for everything.

"So kid," the Colonel said to me. "Is Mr. Barnes your biological father?"

"No."

"Then were are your biological parents?"

"My mother's still on Reach, probably still stuck in the wall with the Brute spikes holding her there. My dad's in Reach's orbit, if his body hasn't fallen to the planet yet."

"So they're dead?"

"Duh."

The Colonel rubbed his chin. "Well, you don't seem to sad about that."

I shook my head. "Why should I? They always treated me like shit, and if the Covenant hadn't killed them, then I would've."

"Moving on then," the Colonel said, pacing back and forth on the side walk. The Marine on the gun swung it around at the crowd forming to discourage them from watching. "Did Mr. Barnes make you actually go out on spacewalks to recover the weapons?"

"He didn't make me," I told him. "I wanted to do that. It was fun being out among the stars, being weightless, being a mere speck in the massive galaxy…have you ever been out in space?"

"I've been on ships," the Colonel replied. "Not on a spacewalk."

"Try it sometime, it'll life changing."

The Colonel tugged at his collar, and the pointed to the back of the troop-transport Warthog. "Get in and get comfortable. It's a long ride to Kepler Base."

With the help of the Marine, I climbed into the back, and sat on the seat closest to the back, and waited. A moment later, Jakob was escorted out by two other Marines, and they forced him into the other troop-transport Warthog.

The Colonel jumped in the back of my Warthog, while another Marine climbed into the driver's seat. "Take us to base, Hill," he ordered. "And tell them that we have accomplished the mission."

"Yes sir," he replied, and started the Warthog. We pulled away, with Jakob's Warthog following behind.

"Now," the Colonel said, looking back at me. "To finish questioning, have you ever come across any UNSC classified information in terminals or the like?"

"No," I answered. "Most of the time, the computers are completely ruined, or locked. We can't get in to them; we've tried."

"I see…" There was a silence between the two of us, and the only sound was the wind rippling by as we sped down the road. Scenery flashed by, blurring together from the high speed. Suddenly, there was a beeping heard over the wind.

"Excuse me," the Colonel said, reaching into his suit pocket. He pulled out his phone, and then pressed the button to answer it. "Hello? Yes." There was a pause, and I strained my ears to over hear the conversation over the phone, but the wind prevented it. "You want my prisoners for what? That's not possible. I need to know why you want them. I'm not just going to hand them over to…ONI's orders?" The Colonel sighed. "Fine." He hung up and shoved the phone into his pocket.

"What's up?" I asked, completely aware that I was out of place in asking.

"You got lucky, kid," the Colonel replied, moving over towards the driver seat. "Get the base on the line, and tell them to prep a Falcon for our guests. They're to be transported to the Nassau Station in the Bahamas."

"Sweet," I muttered. "I get arrested and I get to go on vacation."

* * *

***Kiera's POV***

I leaned back and closed my eyes, letting Sarah drive the warthog down the road. The Bahamas wasn't huge compared to some of the places Sarah and my mother had visited, but I figured I've seen it all on Reach before the Covenant came in and destroyed everything.

Reach.

It was our first home-Sarah's and mine. Sarah is my mother. She was a Longsword fighter pilot during the Fall, but we managed to escape on a ship just as the Covenant came. Knowing what would come after, Sarah took me to Earth; we've lived here ever since.

"Kiera, what else do we have to do today?"

Opening my eyes, I glanced at Sarah. Her long dark brown hair was tied back, and hazel eyes covered by a pair of sunglasses. Her pale skin matched mine, with her black tank top fluttering in the wind.

"Kiera?" She met my gaze before taking a hand off the steering wheel to adjust her sunglasses. Despite how I always told her that these things have autopilot, she always chooses to drive.

"Not that I can think of," I replied, and turned back to look out the open side. Scenery flashed passed as the warthog sped up towards the Nassau Station. I could see it from where we were on the road.

"You packed everything, right?"

"Yes, Sarah. Like you told me the first time." I slyly looked back again at my mother. Her lips were pursed and brow furrowed. I smiled, knowing I annoyed her by using her first name.

"Would you not call me that?" She sighed, sounding tired.

"Could you please tell me what the hell we're doing?"

Sarah looked at me before returning her gaze to the road. "I suppose I owe you that much."

"You suppose?" I laughed. "You tell me to pack my things because some guy whose name is Brian has a job for you."

"And you," she added before smiling. "We can actually call him right now. You can personally ask him yourself about what kind of job this is."

Sarah reached forward with her left hand-keeping her right hand on the wheel, and grabbed her tablet, tapping buttons that popped up.

Mumbling I said: "There's autopilot …" but she ignored me and continued on.

Finally, a call connected, and a man's face appeared on the screen with a ring. I didn't recognize him, and began wondering where my mother met him until the screen wavered as the call connected.

"Brian, hello. It's Sarah Free calling."

Static greeted her before a deep voice responded. "Sarah! You sound well. Are you on your way to the Nassau station?"

"We can see it now."

"Good, good …" More static. "Did your daughter decide to come along as well?"

"I didn't have much of a choice," I spoke up, expressing my irritation.

The man-Brian-laughed for a few seconds. "That's your mother for you; she doesn't take no for an answer."

"I think my way works pretty well." Sarah commented, before laughing herself.

"It made you a damn good pilot, that's for sure. You always seemed to have beaten the odds that way."

I saw my mother smile. She became serious, and asked quietly. "What's the job, Brian? We left a lot, so it better be good."

"Oh, it is." More static before it cleared away. "I can't brief you like this, so you'll have to wait until you arrive at the Nassau Station in orbit. From there, we'll get things squared away and you can meet your partners for this mission."

My mother must have sensed what I thought. "Partners?" She voiced out loud in a faint whisper. She cleared her throat. "Brian," she began. "I'm sorry, but from what I understand, it was just to be myself and Kiera on this mission."

"Section 3 denied the request. The main members thought it would be more suitable for a team of four to complete the mission."

"Four would mean more of a risk to the main objective of the mission." Sarah said. She was annoyed, that much I gained from listening so far.

"I'm aware, Sarah, but in this case, four would be much more … acceptable. This mission cannot fail. This would be possibly one of your most dangerous and long missions." Brian replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

I rolled my eyes, and sighed. "Sarah, let it go. If the big ONI man says that four's the number, then we'll take it. The extra help may be needed."

"Your daughter has some sense." Brian added. There were some sounds in the background from Brian's line, and a jumbled voice spoke. I couldn't make out the words that were being said.

"Listen, Sarah." Brian came back on the phone. "I've got to go. Your partners for the mission have arrived, and I must go meet them. Are far are you away from the station?"

"Just coming up to the Orbital Lift now." Sarah turned down the road, and stopped outside the gate to be inspected by soldiers. "We'll see you soon."

"Yes. I think you'll be more than pleased with the prospects of this mission. I can promise you that."

And with a click, the phone call ended.

"Good day to you, ma'am. ID please." A marine walked up to our vehicle, and stood on the driver side. I saw he had a MA5B and a kukri on him with no other visible weapons amongst his gear.

Sarah reached into the back, and grabbed her bag. Pulling it to the front, she rummaged through it and pulled out a small, but thick stack of papers pinned together. After the marine read through them all and scanned them to confirm their validity, he motioned the rest of the security group forward and they did a thorough sweep of the warthog before finally confirming they can go forward.

The gate slide open, and Sarah pulled up to a parking lot after the marine directed us where to go. Sarah parked the warthog in the very back corner of the long-term guest parking lot, making me glare at her in annoyance because of the distance. She ignored me, and got out of the driver's seat. We grabbed the gear in silence, and walked into the station.

It was like a hotel lobby. Red benches and couches lined the tan walls, which circled around to a front desk where two women sat working, and another stood behind them on the phone. There were five doors, one guarded by two marines and the rest left alone.

I know Sarah was taking in everything just as I was. As she stopped to look at stuff on her tablet, I focused on my attention on the guarded doors. They were large and had a metallic sheen to them. Two circle windows were on the top, allowing me a small field of view down past the doors. I guessed that the orbital lift was that way.

I made eye contact with one of the guards. He looked to be young, maybe in early to mid-twenties. As soon as he saw I was looking at him, he averted his gaze to somewhere else in the room.

Sarah elbowed my side, and nudged me forward. As she walked forward, we approached the desk as the woman standing finished on the phone.

"Hello-" My mother began until she was cut off by the woman. She was a blonde, her hair neatly pinned back. Her navy blue uniform seemed to be too tight for her frame, as she bent down, she sucked in tightly and held her breath. Her nametag was gold and stood out the most. It read 'Anna'.

She typed information in a hurried manner, before finally straightening up, and smiling at us. "Hello there. How may I be of service to you?"

My mother stepped forward, and set a duffel bag on the ground in front of the desk. "We received orders from Lieutenant Colonel Brian Mowry to arrive on the Nassau Space Station at approximately 16:00 for a top priority mission from ONI." Sarah handed the papers to the women, along with some more information on her tablet.

The secretary frowned as she looked at the papers. She slowly shuffled them through her gaze as if each word was worth savouring.

"I should also add, that Lieutenant Colonel Mowry almost meant that it would be without delay."

I hid a smile as my mother said that, because the secretary looked up at her with an irritated look upon her features. As it tugged at the corners of my mouth, my mother smiled politely at her. "I apologize for my rudeness, but any delay would be … unwanted."

The woman said nothing, and quietly piled the papers back in their original order, set them on Sarah's tablet, and gave it back to her. She looked around the room, and motioned at the guard I was staring at earlier.

He stepped forward until he arrived at the desk, and stood by my side. I heard his gear move when he stood at attention. "Yes ma'am?" He asked.

"Private Eric Millers. Escort these two up the orbital lift and to Nassau station. Ensure that they reach their destination of C-Wing, room 023. Once you've succeeded, you will remain there until they are sent out on their mission. I will have a replacement for you current position until then."

I didn't know if he seemed relieved, but his shoulders dropped slightly, but his facial expression remained the same. "Yes ma'am." With an 90 degree turn to the right, he faced the door. He looked to me, then me mother, and opened his mouth to say something before my mother cut him off.

"This way, I presume?" Sarah smiled at him, and hefted her gear up before striding to the doors where the other guard stood.

Private Millers squinted at her, causing me to laugh. "Don't worry, Private Millers," I reassured him. "She's always like that. We better hurry up, or she'll leave without us."

xXx

The ride up was uneventful, and the check-in on the platform was more tedious than the last. I couldn't blame security, though. Past events on Earth made it all the more needed.

Private Millers stood with us outside our room, detailing our schedule for the evening. I didn't think it was necessary, and I'm sure Sarah agreed, but Private Millers seemed to think so.

"Between 17:00 and 19:00, supper is available to all civilian personal in the C-wing dining hall, located to the left from the entrance."

"Thank-you Private Millers. I think we'll be good anyways. Brian is supposed to meet us soon anyways."

Millers frowned at the use of Lieutenant Colonel Mowry's first name, but simply gave a curt nod of the head, ending his lecture. "I'll be in the room next door if you need me. I am to escort you to dinner if you wish to go. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, Millers. We will be good to go." Sarah nodded back at him, before turning to open the door with our new security clearance card.

The Private turned to look at me, his dark eyes piercing mine. "And anything for you?"

I smiled. "No thank-you. We will be fine."

He stared at me for a moment, before giving a small salute and walking off to his room. I followed my mother into our room, and sat down on one twin bed.

The room had grey walls decorated with a few pictures and paintings. It wasn't overly huge, but it wasn't small either. Two twin beds-one being mine-rested their headboards against the left wall, with about a four foot gap in between. A small night side table sat there. Directly opposite of it, was a TV stand with a medium sized TV on it. One wardrobe stood a bit off from that, then the door to the bathroom was beside that.

"Cozy for a space station, eh?"

I snapped out of my wandering gaze and stood to face where Sarah's voice was emanating. She walked out of the bathroom, and looked around the room. I nodded, and fell onto the bed, feeling tired and hungry.

Sarah walked to her own bed, and sat down on it too, smoothing out a crinkle in the blankets. "Take a nap if you want. I think I'm going to get changed into something more suitable." With that being said, she leaned down and retrieved her one duffel bag of clothes. Digging through it, she held up her old pilot uniform.

I rolled onto my side, and watched her give it a once-over. "You look good in that," I commented thoughtfully. I knew it would make her happy.

And it did. "Thank-you, Kiera." She smiled at it, lost in thought. Sarah stood up, and walked to the bathroom to change. "So what will you do while we wait?" She closed the door, causing her voice to muffle. "You can go over our gear and make sure we have everything. Some of the details Brian sent me beforehand are on my tablet if-"

I scrambled to my feet, the tiredness gone. "No thanks, Sarah. I think I'll go walk around outside for a bit. See what else this space station has to offer."

"Are you sure? You wanted to know-"

"Yes, I know I wanted to know earlier." I huffed out. Pulling my long brown hair back into a ponytail, I determined that I looked decent enough to be seen. I took the card Sarah had from her when she came out of the bathroom, and left the room.

The hallways were empty. I walked around until I found myself at the entrance. Remembering Private Miller's words about the cafeteria, I turned to the left I saw the cafeteria further down.

Just as I went to walk down, I heard a voice behind me. "What is a little girl doing here?"

Turning around, masking the small spike of anger behind an expressionless face, I turned and saw two marines behind me. One was an older fellow, and the other looked a bit younger than him. Tattoos decorated each of their arms, and on the older fellow's case, tattoos along his neck too.

The older fellow laughed, and pushed his friend forward. He jabbed his remark at me: "I said, what, is a little girl doing here?"

I blinked slowly, ignoring his words. I turned around and walked to the cafeteria. Cooks in the kitchen were starting to prepare food, so I went to a table, sat down, and I observed my surroundings.

The cafeteria was basically empty, save for five people. A group of three laughed and chatted amongst themselves. They appeared to be cleaning staff, or other a similar thing.

The other group consisted a man and a teenager. Father and son, perhaps? They sat the farthest away, in a corner, and talked to each other in a quiet tone. I closely examined the father, then I examined the father. I couldn't exactly see a strong resemblance, but enough to understand that there is a possibility of a family-relationship.

They got up, and cleaned off their table of garbage, and walked to leave in the direction I came.

The two marines I had the pleasure of meeting earlier walked past my table, and grinned in my direction. I continued to ignore them, and watched the father and son leave.

A loud clap interrupted my thoughts, and I flinched in direction of the noise. The older marine stood laughing, along with his friend. He mouthed "_Little girl"_ then walked away to go get food the cooks started dishing out.

"I am not a little girl! I'm 17, damn it!" I yelled at them. "That much I can promise you, idiots."

The younger marine stopped, and narrowed his eyes at me. The older marine stopped laughing, but smile still played on his features. The group of three stopped talking and glanced hesitantly in my direction.

The son out of the father-son pair stopped. And he smiled at me. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

I glared at him, and he only winked, before being ushered out by his father. The younger marine shrugged and pushed his friend in the direction of the group of three. One of the ladies who sat there poked him, and then pointed in my direction. The older marine shrugged, and they all laughed; probably at his friend's antics.

I propelled myself away from the cafeteria, already the tiredness starting to come back. I was beginning to hate myself for agreeing to this.

**Dejae: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. [Insert Joke Here] See you by the next chapter!**


	2. The Mission

_Chapter Two: The Mission_

***Trey's POV***

I flopped down on the bed, releasing a tired sigh. ONI had sent us up to the Nassau station, where we were to await further instructions. There was absolutely nothing that a seventeen year old could do here, other than screw around with the porn-filled public terminal. And trust me, I don't do that kind of thing.

Jakob went over to the closet, and slid the door open. "I can understand that you're bored, Trey," he said, "but keep in mind that you're lucky that we're not in the slammer right now. ONI must really need someone to do whatever it is they wanted, or they wouldn't have come to us."

"I might be able to understand why they want you, but why the hell would they want me?" I asked, kicking off my shoes. With let another swift kick, I knocked them to the floor. "You're good with guns, I'm good with video games. So, unless its some high-tech virtual FPS, then I have no reason to be here."

"Oh come on," he insisted, looking down at his stained T-Shirt and frowning. He pulled a polo shirt from the closet, and a clean pair of pants, and headed toward the bathroom. "Where's your sense of adventure? Think about it. You get to tell all the girls that you were actually on a classified ONI job."

"Dude, the keyword was _classified_," I muttered, propping my feet up on the folded blankets at the edge of the bed. "They most likely wouldn't believe me if I simply said that I worked a short amount of time for ONI, and then things went back to normal."

"I'm sure that Lindsey would believe you, and she's the one you like right?" he asked from the bathroom. Honestly, I don't know why he was changing in the bathroom, I had seen him in the nude several times. For the record, not gay. Our freighter had a small row of cyro-tubes, which we used when in slipspace. They were several hundred years old, so if we actually had clothes on when we used them, they were frozen to our skin. That's not comfortable.

"Only a little bit," I replied, reaching over for the TV remote. It was among the few things that I could do, and I figured that there would be way too many UNSC and ONI propaganda commercials. After we won the war sometime last year, the UNSC was using that as a means to gain new recruits. ONI was planning some sort of secret project, like always. Rumors claimed that it might actually be a new Spartan project.

Jakob re-entered the room, with his new clothes on. For the first time in a long time, he actually seemed like he was dressed nice. "Get ready, we have to meet this official for the briefing, or whatever." He tossed his old clothes into a hamper, and snatched the remote from my hand. "Put some clean clothes on, Trey."

I sighed and stood up, only to have Jakob take my spot. "Yes, father," I replied, with the most sarcastic tone I had. One disadvantage to being a somewhat smaller than average seventeen-year-old on an ONI space station: the clothes I had felt like they were designed for Spartans. I took a simple gray polo shirt, and a pair of blue jeans.

Unlike Jakob, I simply removed my shirt where I stood, and pulled the gray polo over my head. The short sleeves reached down to my elbows, making me feel somewhat small. The blue jeans were worse. I couldn't keep them on without a belt, with the UNSC doesn't seem to provide. Muttering some curses to them, I began searching for anything that would hold my pants up.

Jakob found this highly amusing. He was laughing as I struggled to keep my jeans on, and fumbled around in them. Eventually, several minutes later, I found a small coil of rope in the closet. Don't ask me why there was rope on a space station, it was there, so I used it. Once the jeans were secure, I had to roll up the legs so I would be able to walk without tripping over myself every five seconds. The long polo covered went down roughly half of my thigh, so it covered up the sloppy belt.

"There, I'm ready," I said, slipping into my shoes.

"Well then, come on Huckleberry Finn," Jakob joked, as he got up from the bed. "We've got a job to do, and some money to possibly earn."

Once again with the whole money thing. "Is that all you think about? Money?"

"Not really, but it's pretty high up there."

I sighed, and headed for the door. Mashing down on the glowing green button, the door slid open. "Well then, let's go find this ONI dude, and find out what we need to do."

"His office is conveniently on the whole other side of the station," Jakob told me, as he slid his hand into his pocket for our room key card. When we were outside, he slid it through the machine, which locked the door. "Fortunately, the Nassau isn't as big as most of the other stations, so it shouldn't take us more than fifteen minutes to get there."

"And I assume that you know the office number? I don't want to be stuck wandering around for hours like last time."

He instantly frowned. "That was different. We were going to get some of our supplies that were shipped in from Mars, not being enlisted in an ONI assignment."

I folded my arms. "So? We were still hopelessly lost and caught by the ODST's after hours, and they thought we were breaking in. That was the first time we were arrested."

Jakob shrugged. "Maybe, but we got everything cleared up the next day didn't we?" He was leading, and decided to take a shortcut through the mess hall. We had eaten here less than an hour ago, and the girl that had caused the uproar was still there.

"So," I asked, somewhat casually and somewhat awkwardly, "what do you think the spooks want us for? Perhaps for some of their sick experiments? Maybe we'll walk outta here Spartans."

"Don't get your hopes up," Jakob said. "And besides, why do we even need Spartans anymore? The War is over, the Insurrection hasn't launched any major campaigns yet, and there's almost no problems between colonies anymore."

"If you think about it, we really ought to thank the Covenant," I commented. "They brought humanity together."

He scoffed. "The surviving 13% of it." I assumed that it was a rough estimate. He wouldn't know the exact percentage, since the UNSC was yet to release the statistics. It was unlikely they ever would. However, it had to be close. We had lost 23 billion humans over the past three decades.

"Anyway, we're probably just going to do something simple, like find some lost ONI tech," Jakob said, switching back over to our old topic of conversation. "We salvage wrecked ships, so it might actually make some sense."

"It's ONI," I reminded him. "They never make sense."

He sighed. "Are you always so critical about ONI?"

"Yes."

"Good. But don't let them know that."

I scoffed. "Fine."

* * *

Several minutes later, we stood outside of the office of the ONI agent. Personally, I wasn't looking forward to this. Jakob and I had been caught selling illegal Covenant weapons, and if ONI wanted criminals, then chances are that it wasn't going to be something that would be exciting.

Two Marines stood guard on either side of the door, MA5's in their hands. That's right, not some of the new models of assault rifles, but the good old-fashioned kind that held sixty rounds instead of thirty-two. Both Marines looked serious, as if they would put a clip into a dust bunny if it looked at them wrong.

Jakob reached for the button to open the door, but the Marine on the left lashed his hand out at lightning speed and caught it by the wrist. "Can I help you?" he asked, in a voice that reminded me of Stallone. Hey, I'm pretty keen on my old movie stars.

"Um..." Jakob said. "We have a...um...appointment with the ONI guy." Way to go dumbass. You don't even know his name. Now, things were awkward.

"I see." The Marine released his grip on Jakob, and nodded to the other Marine. "We'll see about that." The other Marine nodded back, and pressed a red button on the wall.

Nothing happened. I had no idea what he just did, and now I was starting to get slightly tense. Did he just call security on us? Jakob was losing it. He had some slight issues keeping his cool, and right now I swear that he was beginning to sweat. And it wasn't hot in the Nassau. See what I have to put up with? Not cool.

Several more tense seconds passed, and the door slid open. The Marine on the left gave a slight shrug of mild surprise, and nodded to the door. "Go on in, then."

Jakob and I shot each other a quick glance, and entered the room. There was a large table in the middle, with two chairs on one side, two chairs on the other, and two more one the side farthest from the door. The dark blue carpet gave a sense of royalty, and seemed out of place with the white steel walls.

In front of each chair was a computer, along with several folders and a pen on top of each folder. Four seats were occupied, forcing Jakob and I to take the two on the left.

"You're late," commented the man sitting at the head of the table, next to another man that looked to be all business. "Did you have any trouble finding your way here?"

"Um...just a little," Jakob replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a rather large station, and well...we took a wrong turn." I almost face-palmed. Great. Now he was lying to ONI. In truth, we stopped by the cafeteria again for some of the pizza.

The man adjusted his glasses. "I see." His tone of voice pretty much confirmed that he knew about that lunch stop. He looked over at the other two people, which I recognized one. It was the same girl from the cafeteria the first time Jakob and I had been there. I gave a small wave, but she didn't notice.

"Now that we're all here, I suppose that we should get started." The first man and the younger man stood up simultaneously. "I am Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Alexander." He gestured to the other man. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Brian Mowry. The two of us work for the Office of Naval Intelligence."

"Yeah, I know," said the woman next to the girl. "Brian, I assume these two are the partners you were talking about." From the slightly irate tone in her voice, I figured that she might not like us or the idea of partners.

Brian nodded, shuffling some papers on the table around in search of one that seemed to elude him. "Yes, Sarah, those are you and Kiera's new partners. Would you like some time to get acquainted now, or would you rather wait until you're on the mission?"

Sarah shrugged. "I'd rather wait. I've been curious as to the details concerning the mission."

"In that case," Alexander interjected, before anyone else could get a word in, "We shall begin the debriefing. But, first, is there anyone who would like to back out right now. It will be without question, and will not affect you in any way."

"Personally, I'd like to know what it is before I decide," Jakob said. "I don't want to get into anything too complicated."

"Being a criminal under my custody, you really have no other choice than to go, Mr. Barnes," Alexander snarled, seeming to find some happiness in the superiority. "You can either embark on the mission, or spend the next three decades in a maximum security prison. Your choice."

Jakob mumbled some rather vulgar curses, which I would've heard if I hadn't found amusement watching the faces of our new partners. At first, it had been shock, and then some concern. The two began to whisper amongst themselves, talking something over.

Sarah stood up. "If he's a criminal, then I don't want him anywhere near me or my daughter. He could be a bad influence, try to rob us blind and kill us in our sleep...or worse." She stared at Jakob with a hint of disgust. I couldn't make out what the daughter's face was...it appeared to be a cross of confusion and...I couldn't tell.

"Hey, all I did was sell a few illegal weapons," Jakob said in his defense. "I'm not some serial killer rapist or something like that."

I sighed when I saw the smirk form on Alexander's face. "A few? Mr. Barnes, we recovered over fifteen-hundred illegal Covenant weapons from you store, and we still haven't searched all of the walls yet."

I leaned over to Jakob. "You sorta walked into that one."

"Shut up."

"Okay," Brian said, a little louder than normal to get everyone's attention. "There is a reward if the mission is completed. A fraction of it will be given for simply going, since the mission is dangerous."

That had Jakob's attention. I even saw a hint of interest in Sarah's eyes. "How much?" they both asked simultaneously, and then looked over at each other, then back to the ONI men.

"For simply going, twenty-thousand credits."

Jakob let out a low whistle. "With that kind of money, we could get a new ship, new supplies, a new store, and get back into business," he whispered to me.

"Why? We got caught this time, I'm sure they'll be monitoring us for years now."

"Good point."

"What's the full thing?" Sarah asked, tilting her head to the side. Kiera remained silent at her side.

"Five-hundred million credits. Each."

"Now I'm glad I have no choice," Jakob commented, eyes lighting up. I'm sure he might be a decedent of Scooge. "With that much money, we could pool it together for one billion, and actually go legit. We won't have to work another day of our lives." He leaned back in his chair, and smiled as he imagined all that we could do with that much money.

Sarah and Kiera on the other hand, seemed a little hesitant. "We'll need to talk this over in private." They walked to the corner and once again whispered with each other.

"I'll let you know that I'm a professional lip reader," said Jakob, leaning forward in his seat so he could see better. "She's saying; Never retune a wet...piano? Why is she saying that?"

I face-palmed, and looked at the computer screen. On it, there was an audio file loaded up and ready to play. Apparently, Alexander saw my look. "Don't touch that yet. That's only for when the mission is accepted."

Well, I had no choice. Why was he so crabby about it?

Sarah and Kiera came back over. "We'll do it," Sarah said. Kiera gave a hesitant nod. They sat down. "Now, what are we doing?"

"Do you remember what happened last week? What scam became the most popular topic on television, only for the UNSC to confirm it to be false?" asked Brian, looked over some papers.

"The Master Chief scandal?" I asked. According to the news, some transport ship carrying people to old colonies to see what could be salvaged picked up a radio signal, but had no clue where it came from. The UNSC had come out to say that it was false and only a prank.

"Exactly," Brain continued. "If you press the play button on the computer screens..."

I reached out, and pressed the triangle button on the touchscreen, and the audio played.

"_...NSC FFG 201 Forward Unto Dawn. Survivors aboa..."_

"That's the recording. It's not complete, but that's what the crew found," Alexander said. "Now, if you listen closely, you might notice something. Play it again, if you need to."

I played it again, and then again, and so did the others. I didn't see anything strange.

"The ship's serial number," Kiera suddenly said. "FFG 201. A normal civilian prankster wouldn't normally know that, right?"

Brian sapped his finger. "Right. So that would mean that if it were a prank, then the prankster would most likely have to be associated with the UNSC, perhaps a Marine or ODST. But listen to it again..."

With a roll of my eyes, we all listened to it again. This was not helping. He should simply tell us what we're going to be doing instead of all of this.

"The voice is female," I said, trying to add anything to what we had. "That would rule out all the males, right?"

Alexander chuckled, but Brian shook his head. "Not exactly, but that is pretty close. Using voice recognition, we were able to match up the voice of the audio, supposedly Chief's AI Cortana, with that of Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creator of Cortana, and it was far too much of a match to be a coincidence."

"Then," Alexander interrupted, taking over, "You'll notice that the voice heard on the distress beacon sounds more computerized than that of normal AI speech. That means that it's AI coding speech, which is the computer commands that AI's think. If it requires a voice playback, then the AI thinks the speech, and it comes out more computerized. Only the original AI can do this."

"So," Brian took over, "with this simple analysis, we believe that it's not actually a hoax, but the actual beacon. Even though the circumstances can be false, it would take the prankster too much work. He would have to acquire a Cortana model AI, which there are only two in existence, one being Cortana. That alone is impossible."

"So, why did the UNSC call it a prank then?" Sarah asked. "If this is real, then this is the discovery of a century. It'll mean that the Master Chief cheated death _again._"

Alexander removed his glasses and pulled a small gray cloth out, and began to wipe the lenses. "First off, the UNSC has no idea where the beacon was picked up. The ship was crossing thousands of miles of open space. Second, if they did announce that it was legitimate, then the public would be wanting them to do a search for Chief, and we need our ships here while we rebuild. Third, even if they did go out and found him, then there's a good chance that the ship would be in Elite or Brute territory, which will look bad at all of those peace talks we're holding with them."

"Couldn't they get than good Elite guy to let them in?" asked Jakob. "He fought alongside the Chief, so he'd probably understand."

"If the Arbiter were to let humans into their territory, then it wouldn't be hard for the word to get out through the Elites that their leader let humans in, and that would only worsen the rebellions occurring on their planet," explained Brian. "We already asked him if it would be possible for him to send some Elite scouts out to see if they can find it, but they're too busy fighting the rebellions."

"So," Jakob said, running his hands through his thick black hair, "I guess this is where we come in. You want us to find the Master Chief, don't you?"

"Yes." Brian stared at each one of us individually. "The mission is to find and recover Spartan John-117. ONI will be providing you with a ship, weapons, ammo, and whatever you need. You are to leave whenever you're ready, in Docking Bay 94."

"Wait wait wait," I interrupted, throwing my hands up. "We need weapons for what? Last time I checked, the Master Chief was on our side."

Alexander and Brian shot each other a look. "Well...there are reports of a new splinter Covenant faction emerging. They're the last remnant of the old Covenant, still focused on the old ideals of human extinction. They've been seen in open space territory, and once attacked a human ship, leaving no survivors."

"Okay, that's great," Jakob spat, knocking his chair over as he stood up. "You said it would be dangerous, but you never said Covenant dangerous. I don't want to put Trey through something like that. It's not right to force a teenager to fight aliens."

"But, his expertise in salvaging shipwrecks could be valuable in the situation," Alexander argued, putting his glasses back on. "And it's not like either of you have a choice. It's either this, or thirty years in prison. Your choice, as I said."

Jakob scowled, and I actually thought that he might choose prison for a second just to protect me, but of course the idea of all that money came back to his thoughts. "Alright, fine. But if he gets hurt it's on your head, and you'll pull him out the first chance we get."

"Agreed."

Looking around, I saw that Sarah and Kiera had left in the middle of the argument to get first dibs on the ship. I knew a little bit out things like this from evacuations off of Reach, and if you didn't get on the ship or whatever fast, all the good spots were taken.

So, I was going to get shot at by genocidal aliens, but I was looking for a Spartan. Scratch that, I was looking for _the _Spartan. Lucky me.


	3. Getting Started

___Chapter 3: Getting Started_

_***Kiera's POV***_

"Are you excited?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"You _suppose_? We just got tasked with the search and recovery of Spartan-117-the one and only, and you _suppose _that you're excited?!"

Sarah continued to walk forward, her face unchanging. I didn't understand how she was so... like this. We are going to find the Spartan, for crying out loud!

I huffed out loud, trying to get her attention. "Look, Sarah, I know this is dangerous-"

"Dangerous?!" She wheeled on me, almost spitting. "We're entering into potential enemy territory, where Sangheili relations with the UNSC aren't actually stable, so God knows what they would do to us if they found us?! And that's not including how the Kig-Yar and Brutes feel about us-which, we already happen to know. But above the huge risks, I have my young daughter as a teammate, along with another stranger who has a kid of his own!"

She stared at me with a cold expression. I swallowed my words down my throat, ending her rant. There wasn't any use arguing with her now. I wanted to go badly, to escape Earth and just for once in my life do something so incredible.

"Do you understand me, Kiera?" Sarah asked.

"I had top honours at the military academy, so I think I can handle this."

"Do you understand me?"

I sighed. "Yes, I understand you. Now let's go see the ship."

It sat outside the station, quiet and undisturbed while a few Pelicans were being flown back from dropping off supplies: it was a Winter-class prowler; a classic. It was a sleek grey, metal colour. Large, considering our small my team was, but I remembered reading that it could be operated by a small crew.

"A small crew that needs an AI to operate this." I mumbled under my breath. Sarah and I moved to the next window to see what exactly we were given.

"Good, good .. interesting." Sarah commented as we passed by. "Decent armour .. bay doors so we may have access to a pelican." Since she was the pilot, I remained quiet, knowing she knows more than me.

No more windows appeared, so we continued to walk along the hallway until we reached the bay doors. Sarah reached forward, swiped her ID, and was granted access to the bay.

As we walked in, Sarah turned to me and said: "I wonder if we'll get an AI. We'll need one for the ship, unless our other teammates can pilot _that_."

I detected the sarcasm, and wondered if she was really that perturbed by the fact we have to work with criminal-like people.

The door beeped, indicating it was closing, and slid shut. I slightly jumped forward to get in front of Sarah to be the one in front.

All three of the pelican's ramps were extended, and people scurried back and forth with crates, amongst other things. Everything was tightly packed and secured. We watched the procedure before we were approached by one of the pilots.

"'Scuse me, misses, but are ya supposed to be boardin' the prowler?"

I stepped back while my mom stepped forward, nodding. "Yes. How soon can we board?"

The pilot scratched his head, and surveyed the flurry of activity. "Well, I suspect that all supplies will be on the _UNSC Nightingale_ soon, as we're just 'bout finishin' up. I'll come and get ya when that's good."

The pilot left back to his pelican, and entered from, the back, barely making it past all of the things on board. A technician spoke over the loud PA system, informing for everyone to clear the deck and wait until the Pelicans left the bay.

Sarah pulled me off to the side, where other technicians were standing with data pads as one by one, the Pelicans lifted off, and glided towards the open, but shielded doors. After they disappeared, the technicians standing by us moved forward to help prepare the next shipment.

The door we entered from opened, and our two teammates walked in. Jakob was the first to smile at us, but Trey just stared, suddenly quiet.

They moved towards us, and I saw Sarah stiffened. She always did that when people she didn't like approached her, but she somehow always managed to act like she didn't.

"Ladies." Jakob smiled at both of us, before turning to Sarah. "It'll be a pleasure working with you both."

"Why yes, of course." My mother politely smiled back, although I could see it was fake. "I'm sure we'll make a wonderful team, you and your son."

Trey finally perked up, and smirked. I prepared myself mentally for a bad joke just as he said: "And I'm sure we will, Sarah. It's honestly a pleasure to meet you. And your hot daughter."

"Trey!" Jakob cuffed him in the back of the head, obviously a reoccurring habit as Trey tried to duck but failed.

Trey smiled sheepishly at me. I felt like I might throw up.

"Oh, well, don't you have an outspoken son." Sarah stared at Trey, who winked at her.

Jakob sighed and massaged his temples. "I should clarify that Trey is in fact not my son, rather my step-son, it simpler terms."

I couldn't help but glance at Trey, comparing him to Jakob. When Trey saw me looking at him, he smiled, and wiggled his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes, already dreading the fact that I would be stuck on a ship with this guy.

"Stand by, Pelicans are re-entering bay. Please move to designated spots and remain there until Pelicans have safely landed."

Jakob pulled Trey back and stood somewhat behind Sarah and I. The four of us watched as the Pelicans came back, and landed. Personal immediately went to work as soon as the hatches opened.

The pilot who talked to Sarah and I earlier came out of his Pelican, and spoke with a technician. They seemed to agree on something, because the pilot laughed and shook the technician's hand before jogging in our direction.

"Hey, ladies. Yous are good to go!" He smiled at once, and looked at my two male teammates. "Are these two with ya?"

"We are," Jakob intervened. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jakob and this is Trey."

The pilot tipped his chin down in a kind way, acknowledging them. "Alright. I can take you aboard the _Nightingale_. The other Pelicans can finish up what's left."

The pilot walked away, and motioned us to follow him. Sarah automatically took lead, with Jakob close behind. Trey smiled at me, and bowed. "Ladies first."

I glared at him but walked forward anyways. As we approached the Pelican, the pilot jogged up the ramp, and up to the cockpit. "Better buckle yerself up, we'll be leaving shortly." He called out as he himself jumped into the pilot seat.

I automatically picked a seat on the left side, and sat down. Sarah sat down beside me, and began buckling up. Trey and Jakob sat on the opposite side. Watching Trey, he buckled up, and sat back, relaxed. He saw me staring, and smiled. I looked away.

Almost immediately, we lifted off, and exited the hangar. The radio in the pelican buzzed with chatter from the other pilots. Our pilot ignored it, and focused on flying. The trip itself was short, but quiet. Neither Sarah or I made conversation to our two teammates. In my peripheral vision, I saw Sarah gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded to someone.

We led on other Pelican out of the hangar, through space, and into bay. The pilot turned 360 degrees, and backed in slowly, setting us down when we've reached the right spot. He touched the Pelican down gently, and opened the ramp. "Alright, folks. Yer good to go! Have a safe trip!"

Sarah was the first to unbuckle and leave. I quickly unbuckled and left the Pelican, eager to see the ship. Trey was close behind, followed by Jakob.

The hangar wasn't huge, just enough to keep one Pelican. Jakob whistled, obviously admiring the ship so far.

"Glad to see someone else likes it, eh?"

I paused. I didn't recognize the voice at first. Sarah slowed down ahead me, her head titled to the side a bit. Trey sidled up beside me, also looking for the voice.

"And you are?" Jakob called out, spinning around in a circle.

"Oooo-oo. I'm a ghost!" A life-size avatar appeared. The man raised his hands, and waved them about. "A ghoosttt!"

"An AI." Sarah stepped past it admiringly. "Nice."

The AI laughed. "I do try. The name's Keating. _AI Keating_ at your service, ladies and gentleman."

The AI's avatar was a middle-aged man, or looked to be, wearing a crisp tuxedo, hair slicked back.

"James Bond." Trey clapped his hands together and pointed at Keating. "That's who you look like."

"Well, I may not be Double-07 but I think I may have a slight advantage over Mr. Bond if he were to exist today." Keating winked at Trey. He spun on his heels, and addressed the rest of us: "Right this way to the bridge, folks. It is important that we get underway as soon as possible to our first destination, and we must all be on the bridge for the transition."

Keating led the way, and for once, we were all quiet. I think it was because we were all actually doing this, but I didn't dare break the silence.

"You have the most intriguing accent," my mother commented quietly as we walked down the corridors."

"Thank-you, Miss Sarah Free. It is a mixture of French and Italian."

We arrived at the bridge to find a series of chairs and consoles spread out; the screens online flashed diagnostics and other things that I wasn't familiar with.

"So, what now?" Jakob asked, stepping away from where we all stood.

Keating walked to the nearest console, and began tapping away. "Please, everyone, take a seat. We are moving away from Nassau station to prepare for our transition as we speak, so time is of the essence."

Sarah was the first to sit down. Following her quickly, I sat down in a chair nearest to her. Jakob went to the chair closest to the frontal screen, and Trey just sat down near him. No one spoke.

Pausing in his flurry of taps, Keating raised a hand to his ear as if he was talking on the radio. "Roger, Nassau. We are prepped and ready for slipspace launch. Stand-by for an message when we arrive."

"So, will we feel anything?" Trey asked, casually. Glancing at him, he almost seemed normal.

"Yes, you will. There are a range of symptoms, but it your case, I assume nausea would be the major role."

Trey didn't ask anything else. He just nodded slowly, before settling back into his seat.

"Please stand-by crew, for slipspace jump." Keating announced.

Sarah leaned back into her seat, and closed her eyes. Unsure of what to expect, I followed suit, and closed my eyes.

I felt nauseous, and prayed that I didn't throw up.

"And, we're done. You may move about the cabin now."

Opening my eyes, I felt dizzy. Shaking my head to clear it, I stood up, hands clamped to the arm rests for support.

Similarly, Trey and Jakob also seemed to have trouble. Sarah, my mother, was fine.

"So," she asked. "Now that's done with, I feel that it's best that you give us a quick tour, Keating, and we go to bed."

"Fair enough," Keating replied. "Let's get going."

The main door to the bridge slid open, and Keating walked to the exit. "Come along, people. I'll be sure to be brief, for you own sake." He glanced at Jakob and Trey, who were holding onto each other's shoulders. "Will you two be fine? I can pull up-"

"No, Keating." Jakob gruffly replied. "We'll be fine. Just a bit ... unbalanced. That is all."

Keating nodded, and motioned for Sarah and I to follow. Walking along the corridors, we eventually came to a large rec room.

"This is the Officer's Mess. You are welcome to eat here, as this is actually where all the food is."

"It's huge for four of us." I whispered to Sarah. She nodded in agreement.

"Yes, quite." Keating added in. He wiggled his eyebrows, and smiled when he saw our confusion. "I am an AI. This ship in a way is me. I can see and hear everything." He glanced disapprovingly at Trey. "This also means I know exactly what you think of that blonde marine woman who escorted you to the hanger, Trey."

I saw Trey stare blankly at Keating, unmoved. "How, exactly, do you know?"

"I piggybacked a COM signal from a Pelican." Keating waved him off. "Now, to bring this tour to an end, let's go to your cabins."

"Finally." Trey sighed. "I'm bored."

"Well, let's not waste time dawdling." Keating said, and smiled at us. With a snap of his fingers, he called us out of the room, and we continued to walk along corridors, taking a flight of stairs down until we reached the a hallway where doors lined each wall.

"Ah, here we are! You get the Officer Quarters, so they shouldn't be too shabby. Quite cozy actually; I think you'll like them."

I saw our luggage sat each in front of a door. It appeared my room was beside Sarah's room, but across from Trey's. How it got there, I had no clue.

Trey walked to his room, and grinned. "Alright," he said. "Open sesame!"

Keating glanced at him quizzically before turning to Jakob: "Should I comply and open the door automatically each time he says that?"

"Nah, just let him go." Jakob stared as Trey stood, looking for a way in.

"Very well," Keating replied. "I will help the poor chap out."

Sarah-already knowing her way around a ship-got her door to open, and motioned me over. "Here, Kiera. Hold your hand in front of this detector and let it scan your fingerprints. Once confirmed, it'll let you in."

Trusting her, I walked over to my own door, and did as my mother instructed .The door bleeped cheerfully, and slide open. I leaned down and grabbed my luggage.

"Hey, how did she get in?" I heard Trey ask from behind me. He was obviously confused. "Keating!"

"Trey, stand in front of the door with-" Keating got cut off as the door slid shut behind me, gently sealing with a hiss.

My room consisted of a desk with a computer and tablet, a dresser, wardrobe, double bed, and another room which I believed to be the bathroom.

I threw my duffel bag on the ground by my feet, and leapt into my bed. It was neatly made, and I prayed that it wouldn't be a rule that everyone had to make their beds in the morning.

"Enjoying yourself, Miss Free?"

Keating appeared in the room, leaning on the wardrobe. His hair was a bit ruffled, unlike its previous state.

"Having fun with Trey?" I was well aware of what AI's could do, and I guessed another part of Keating was still showing the kid how to open the door.

"Yeah, not really. He's a slow learner, that one. Curious too." Keating narrowed his eyes. "I sent Jakob away but I think it might have been good to have kept him around."

"Probably," I squirmed deeper into the mattress of the bed, hoping to find a comfortable spot. "I'm not a huge fan of Trey, but Jakob seems decent at least."

"Hm. Yes, I know, I've read your files." Keating straightened up, and winked at me. "Well, I best be going. Good day to you. And remember to get some sleep, tomorrow will be a hell of a day."

For entertainment or comical purposes, Keating jumped up and disappeared. His avatar was gone from the room at least. I had no doubt he was still monitoring me.

Getting off my already messy bed, I unpacked a bit of my things, and started getting ready for bed. My gut knew what Keating told me: tomorrow will be a hell of a day. And God forbid, I wanted to be prepared for it.

_**A**/**N : Just a quick reminder that Dejae writes for Kiera's point of view. So anything in Kiera's POV is to be accredited to Dejae.**_


	4. Prepping

_Chapter Four: Prepping_

***Trey's POV***

"Trey, you're an idiot."

Believe it or not, that was not the first time Jakob had ever said that to me.

"What did I do?" I asked, sitting up in my now messed up bed. "...and what time is it? I want to go back to sleep."

Jakob rolled his eyes. "First off, you-"

"It's 7:43 am, standard UNSC time," Keating suddenly cut in. "The temperature in the ship is a comfortable 72 degrees, but out in space it's as cold as it gets."

"Thank you, Keating," Jakob muttered, rubbing his forehead as he stood in my doorway. "Now as I was saying, first of all, you really need to watch what you say. Especially around the ladies on board."

I just stared at him. "Are you talking about yesterday, when I accidentally let slip my personal thoughts about our compatriots daughter? If so, can you blame me?"

"Well...she is a beautiful young lady," he answered, somewhat awkwardly, "but I don't have romantic feelings about her, unlike you."

"Hey, I let something slip in accident," I replied, throwing my hands up in defeat. "Now you make a big deal out of it. I'm just a hormonal teenager; that stuff is bound to happen every now and then, am I right?"

Jakob shook his head, smiling. "Sometimes. But that brings up my next point. That blonde Marine woman."

"Ugh! Let that one go!" I cried, flopping back down on my bed. "It was a long elevator ride, and I was really tired due to lack of sleep."

"Yeah," Jakob said, as he turned to leave. "I'll bet. Just get ready and come to the bridge. We're supposed to meet there in a few minutes." He walked out, leaving me alone in my room.

Reluctantly, I yanked the covers off of me, and was actually surprised when I didn't feel a wave of cold wash over me. In reality, it was actually just a few degrees colder with out the covers. I stood up and stretched, walking over to the mirror.

I didn't actually look too bad after a long night. My brown hair was still in place, with only a few stray strands that were easily fixed with a comb. I changed into clean clothes, a white T-shirt and blue jeans, and then I put on my favorite leather jacket.

It was genuine leather, not that cheap fake stuff. Jakob said that it just didn't look like it would work on me. But, I personally thought that it made me look bad ass.

The hallway was empty, which meant that I would be the last to get to the bridge. "Great, there goes any chance I had of calling shotgun," I muttered, before heading to the bridge. Several turns later, I mashed on a door button and entered the bridge...

...only to see a lot of guns in racks mounted on the wall. Okay, it wasn't the bridge, it was the armory. Jakob would literally move into this room when he saw it. He loves guns. I'm sure he'd marry one if he was given the chance. And if it didn't sound creepy.

"The bridge is the other way."

I whirled around to see the yellow AI Keating standing there. "Oh, it's just you. You scared me."

"Sorry," he replied, before motioning me out the door. "But please do hurry, everyone is waiting for you."

Keating guided me to the bridge, correcting my course more times than I'd rather admit. But mere minutes later, we stood in the bridge.

Jakob was sitting in one of the chairs, staring down at the computer screens and switches and buttons on the dashboard in front of him as he tried to figure it all out. Sarah seemed to know what she was doing, as she was giving Kiera a basic run down of what everything did.

"So, we're all here now," Keating said, getting everyone's attention. "I guess now's a good time to give you the basic info of this mission." he walked up to the front of the bridge, and then continued. "You are embarking on the grand adventure of the century. Along the way, you will face hardships, pain, suffering and-"

"Oh get on with it already," Sarah said, looking up from the controls in front of her daughter.

Keating sighed, but still complied. "Very well. ONI has tracked the course of the freighter that found the signal, and has pinpointed several locations along the way that could possibly be the location of the Forward Unto Dawn."

He extended his arm forward, holding an open palm upward. A sphere slightly larger than a basketball appeared above his hand, and was rotating slowly. "The first planet that you will be visiting is Sarai II. An ice dwarf, much like that of Pluto in the Sol System but actually habitable, an ONI probe sent there picked up a faint emergency beacon before it suddenly stopped transmitting."

"Oh great," Sarah muttered under her breath.

"What?" Jakob asked, turning and looking to her. "It's a cold planet. It probably malfunctioned or something."

Keating cleared his throat, once again gaining everyone's attention. "Actually, she is right. ONI probes are tough, and cold will not effect them immediately. There's only one other possibility. Covenant."

There was dead silence on the bridge. Kiera had a nervous look about her face, but she was trying to hide it with a poker face. Sarah really just looked more annoyed than worried. Jakob looked back to me, and I saw concern in his eyes.

I simply held my usual cool look as I walked over to him. I had seen Covenant in action on Reach. Elites kicked human ass. Brutes ate humans for breakfast, literally. Drones had the air advantage. Jackals, they had those shields. Grunts...okay, they really had nothing going for them other than grenade suicide charges.

"I can see that you all are a little...worried," Keating said, stating the obvious. "But, I will do my best on instructing you on how to deal with them. Most of the ammo on board is armor piercing, the armor you've been provided can take a few plasma blasts, and I can send in some missiles from orbit, should the need arise."

Keating gestured to the planet rotating in his hand. "Sarai II is the home of an old ONI base, that also suddenly stopped communicating."

"Twenty bucks says that that was the Covenant as well," I said, standing beside Jakob's seat.

Keating chuckled and shook his head. "Had I accepted that bet, you would owe me twenty credits. The ONI base went silent in 2423, over a century before the first contact with the Covenant. Chances are that there was a power failure due to a solar flare, and they all died of cold."

"Thanks for the happy thought," muttered Jakob.

"You're welcome," Keating replied. "Now, before we embark I suggest we do a weapon training course to accommodate you with the weapons you will be using." He turned to me and smiled. "Trey, I assume you can lead the way to the armory?"

"Yeah, it's this way," I muttered, leading the way.

* * *

I hadn't noticed before, but it seemed that every weapon in the armory had three skins. One arctic, one desert, and one jungle, and then there was standard dull. Every weapon in there was the newest model, from the Assault Rifles, to the BR85 Battle Rifles, to the...

"What is that?" I asked, pointing to a weapon group on the far side of the wall, next to the Assault Rifles.

"That," Keating answered, "is the SAW. One of the newest weapons on the field. It's far better than its predecessor, the SMG. It holds more rounds, and its far more accurate and more powerful."

I glanced over at Jakob, and I saw just what I was expecting. The kid in the candy store eyes, his jaw slightly open in amazement. All that was missing was him squealing in delight and he would look like a little girl at a Justin Bieber concert. Don't ask how I know who Bieber was. That's a long story.

"Now," Keating said, as he walked to the door. "Jakob, you're a gun expert right?"

"Yeah," he replied, his mind still 3,000 miles away as he stared at the guns.

"Good, then perhaps you can instruct the others on how to operate these weapons?"

Jakob shook himself out of it. "Um...yeah, although I'm not completely up to date on the newer weapon models. I'll need some time to work with those."

"Hey," Sarah suddenly cut in. "What about me? I was in the UNSC. I know guns."

"And I went to a military academy," Kiera chimed in. "I know how to use them."

All eyes fell on me. "Um..." It was embarrassing, being the only one who didn't know his way around a gun. "Just point and pull the trigger," I said. "It can't be that hard."

"Famous last words," Keating muttered. "Very well then. Jakob, you will instruct Trey on how to use the guns, while I give the ladies a crash course on flying the ship."

"I'm a pilot," Sarah reminded him. "I know how to fly a ship."

"Never the less, I still have to teach you. Things have changed since the end of the war. There's new rules and regulations and all that, you know," Keating explained, leading them out of the room.

There was an awkward silence in the room, and Jakob looked over the guns. "Well..." he walked over and pulled a rifle out of a rack. "This is an M395 Designated Marksman Rifle," he explained, shoving the gun into my hands.

What I hadn't expected was the weight. I nearly dropped it, but I was able to catch myself before I did. You see all those movies and play those games where the people carry guns around as if they're made of paper. They're not. They're made of cold hard steel. It didn't weigh a ton, but it was more than I expected.

Jakob simply laughed. "Well, that's the first thing you'll need to adjust to," he informed me, looking around the room. "There wouldn't happen to be a firing range around here, would there?"

"Nope," Keating replied over the intercom. "But, the second planet that is marked is Desseri, and there is a very low chance of combat there. Perhaps you can take some time out of our busy schedule while we're there for weapons training."

Jakob shrugged. "It's better than nothing, I guess."

"You're not wearing the armor are you? Perhaps you should get used to that for now."

"No."

"Why don't you go and put that on?"

I handed the DMR back to Jakob, and looked around for the armor."Far corner," Keating said.

The armor was definitely ODST, that much was clear. There were sixteen suits total, with skins similar to the weapons. Arctic, desert, jungle, and the normal gray. The arctic armor had white and gray splotches covering it, and there was a skirt that went half-way around the back, like the ones on the snow troopers in that old Star Wars film. The desert armor had tan and brown splotches, and had more rigid and non-symmetrical pieces of armor, to simulate desert rocks. The jungle armor had green and brown splotches with a matching shawl over it, to make you look like a bush. The normal was, unsurprising, normal.

"Just take any," Keating said, "they're all pretty much the same save for the camo. One size fits all. Well...unless you're really fat..."

I stared at the armor for a minute. "Um...how do I put it on?" Just based on a simple glance, they didn't go on like shirts and pants.

There was an agitated sigh over the intercom. "First, you'll need to put on the undersuit. You can find a nice selection of them folded up in the crates to your left."

I lifted the lid of the crate, and saw several black suits. I grabbed the one on the top, and put the lid back on. "So, do I put this on over my clothes or what?"

"You can, although that will be irritating and uncomfortable. It would be wiser to be nude when you put it on, but like I said, the choice is entirely up to you."

"Well..."

"If I were you, I would just go ahead and put the arctic one on correctly, in the nude," Keating said. "After all, shortly after this we will be embarking to Sarai II, and that way you'll be ready when we get there."

"Fine."

Several awkward minutes later, I was in the undersuit placing my wadded up clothes on the crates. "Okay...now what?"

Keating guided me through the process of putting the armor on. When I was finished, I looked down at myself. Now I really looked like a bad ass. I held the helmet in my hands, staring into the white visor. "So, this is going to be the norm from now on?"

"Yes," the AI replied. "Now, if you and you're father will report the bridge again. We'll been departing soon."


	5. Last Bit of Peace

_Chapter Five: Last Bit of Peace_

***Kiera's POV***

When Trey and Jakob left, I didn't expect them to return wearing a full set of ODST armour.

My mom was still showing me how the weapons console work when the two strolled in, Keating announcing overheard: "Alright, so now that we're underway, let's make up a more formal game plan for us."

"Us?" I saw Sarah twitch in my peripheral vision. She was still annoyed about me and her having to have two other people come along. Sarah cleared her throat, the annoyance passed, and nodded. "Yes, the team."

Trey sidled up to me, dragging his feet as he walked forward. His hips also swung, and arms rocked a bit forwards and backwards. "Hey, ladies."

I laughed. "Wow, look at you."

"Yeah", he nodded. "Look. At. Me." He gestured at what he was wearing, and did a 360 degree turn. Unpolarizing his helmet's visor, he was grinning from ear to ear.

Standing up from my seat, I walked around him, checking out his gear again. I took a step back after I completed the circle. "I bet you think you're a real badass, don't you?"

He just stared at me. As Trey went to go say something, Jakob intervened by walking up to him, and cuffing him in the back.

Smiling to myself, I let Jakob pass by me, and walk up to the bridge. Turning to face everyone, he unpolarized his visor and began to talk. "So, we need a plan aside from our main objective of acquiring the Master Chief."

"That much we know," Sarah murmured quietly. She had her arms crossed, as she leaned on the chair where I was last sitting. "What were you thinking?"

"If I may, Jakob". Keating's avatar flashed onto the bridge directly beside Jakob, and politely smiled. "I think I may be of help here."

"Alright, Keating. Go for it". Jakob said, and went to go step to the side when Sarah started to speak.

"I hope you all know I mean well when I say this," she began, and looked to everyone in the room. "But we should focus on the mission for the time being. Team-bonding can happen later. Right now, we just got pushed into probably the biggest moment of our lives, and I, for one, want to be prepared for it."

Keating nodded thoughtfully, apparently not irritated by Sarah's quick interruption." Well spoken, Sarah."

"Yes, but wouldn't team bonding help each of us on the mission?" Jakob insisted. "I don't know anything about you, or your daughter Kiera, but Im supposed to work and fight along side you?"

"Good point from you as well, Jakob." Keating spoke as he nodded his head. "But what does Kiera and Trey want to do?"

My mother, Jakob, and Keating turned to look at Trey and I. I turned to look at Trey, who met my gaze, and shrugged.

"Uhm," I nervously looked back to the adults of the team. "I think I speak for both of us-"

"Yes, both of us." Trey added in.

"That we both think that each of your ideas are good, so we should do team bonding first as we prep for the mission."

"Hey, that is a good idea." Trey smiled at me. "She definitely speaks for both of us then."

Somewhat gratified from Trey's positive response, I held my breath. Knowing my mother, Sarah might have taken offense that I didn't agree with her, but not completely.

Seeing her stare me down, I shrugged-mimicking Trey, trying to ease the pressure.

Silence continued before Keating spoke first. "That's the best idea yet, Kiera, regarding the subject at hand. Does everyone agree with what Kiera said? Aside from Trey, of course."

"Sure," Jakob said, and he smiled at me. "That is a good idea."

Keating looked to Sarah. "And do agree?"

She looked away, and sighed. Adding a nod as her agreement, she asked: "Pull up a schematic of the ship, Keating."

Twisting his left hand so his palm was upright, the ship appeared, taking on Keating's avatar's colour. It slowly spun.

"What would anyone like to know?" Keating asked.

Sarah studied the schematic. "Well, it appears to be a Prowler. Not sure what class, but I guess Razor. ONI mainly used it during the war with the Insurrection."

"You're mainly correct," Keating said encouragingly. "But it is of Winter-class, not Razor."

The schematic was interesting. I stepped forward to also study it when Trey interrupted my thoughts.

"Totally off topic, but I guess it kind of relates to the ship." He began. "How do you project yourself like you do? Aren't AI's supposed to have hologram pads or something?"

"Good question, Trey." Jakob spoke up. He took off his helmet with a depressurizing hiss. "I was also curious about the same thing."

"If everyone looks up towards the light panels," Keating explained. "You should see fairly tiny holes on both sides."

I looked up, and what he said was confirmed by the fixtures around the lights. Focusing my gaze on other lights, I noticed it was the same for every single light panel on the bridge. How did I not notice that before?

Keating continued on: "Each of those holes contains a projector, in simpler terms, which allows me to project myself as I am. It's supposed to give an AI-like me-a more human vibe to the crew."

Trey rubbed the bottom of his helmet, as those he was rubbing his chin. "Ah, alright. Makes so much more sense."

"Now, anymore questions?" Keating asked.

No one replied.

"Actually," Sarah spoke up. "I have more questions about the ship. But they are just to sate my own personal interest, so no one else has to be here."

"Sounds good." Jakob grunted, and put his helmet back on. "I'm gonna head down to the armory to check out the selection we have access to again. Wanna join me, Trey?"

"Nah, I'm good." Trey responded. He repolarized his helmet.

I started shuffling backwards, hoping no one would notice me leaving when Sarah started speaking to me.

"Kiera, would you like to stay and learn more about the ship?"

"No, I was just gonna head back to my room for a nap." I offered up my best tired smile. "Maybe later."

"Later, then." My mother said, convinced. "But you know we have to be prepared and this is a good way to do it."

I caught Jakob's hesitant step as he was leaving himself. He turned slightly, then continued on normally with saying anything back. The door slide open as soon as Jakob was within the sensory range, then closed after he left.

"Yes, of course Mom." I said, the added a quick, fake yawn. "Later."

Turning around myself, I left through another door, and found myself in an unfamiliar hallway. I guess I wasn't actually planning on going to have a nap. I just wanted to be alone for a while.

"Hey, Kiera!" I heard Trey's voice behind me as I walked down an adjacent hall. "Wait up!"

Ugh. No, Trey. Not now. I sped up slightly, and turned down another hall, hoping he wouldn't see me.

"Seriously, Kiera!" He sounded tired. "Where the hell are you going? Can you stop?"

No, I will not stop.

I kept walking, until a door beeped and slid open. I entered, unsure of where it was.

I found myself in the Officers' Mess. It was as we left it; nothing moved, touched, used, or out of place.

I heard footsteps behind me, slowing down as Trey came up behind me.

"Why didn't you stop?"

So much for being alone. "I didn't hear you," I lied.

Trey took of his helmet, and rolled his eyes. His hair was flattened and sticking up in multiple places. With the scowl he had on his face, Trey certainly had a unique appearance.

"Yeah, right." He sucked in a deep breath. "So this is where the food is?"

"Yeah, I believe so." I felt kind of bad for ignoring him, but I pushed the feelings away. He didn't seem to care now away with food on his mind.

"Well, I sure am hungry." He said, walking over to the counter. Setting the helmet onto it, Trey called out: "Hey, Keating! Where is the food?"

Keating responded almost instantly. "For the sake of supplies, start with MRE's. In the cupboards, you'll have a variety of MRE's to choose from." He materialized by the fridge, arms clasped behind his back in a relaxing manner. "There are not the best, but they serve their purpose." Keating then disappeared, leaving me alone again with Trey.

"Alright." Trey rubbed his gauntleted hands together. "Food."

Opening the fridge, he bent down, and inspected the neat array of meals. His armour jostled as he pulled out and read the contents of the packages.

He straightened back up, and frowned. "They don't seem good."

"They aren't good", I replied. "We got to try some at the academy. Ugh." I scrunched my face in remembrance at the taste.

"So what's this academy you went to anyways?" Trey asked, pulling out a MRE.

"The typical military one."

Moving over to a table, he sat down, and motioned for me to join him. Complying, I took the seat across from him.

I watched him tear open the corner of the package, and pull the contents out. I made a guess he would go straight for the candy bar.

Arranging everything in front of him, Trey confirmed my guess and grabbed the candy bar. "Is this good?"

"Probably the most enjoyable thing out of everything."

He removed the wrapped eagerly and took a bite. Chewing, he said to me: "So, you were born on Reach."

"Yes, same as you."

"How old are you?" Swallowing, he took another bite of the candy bar, staring at me all the while.

I narrowed my eyes. "17."

Trey's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Really?"

Remembering the two marines earlier, I went straight to the point. "Yes, really. How old are you?"

"Also 17."

"Ah, cool."

We sat in silence, him eating and me doing nothing. I squirmed in my seat a bit, trying to get comfortable in this awkward moment.

Trey finished the candy bar, and moved onto something else. I tapped my fingers in a rhythm on the table, considering what to do next.

"Well," I decided. "I think I'm actually going to go now."

He looked up from the food, crumbling falling down from the corner of his mouth onto the chest piece. "Uhh, okay. Nice talking to you, I guess."

"Yep." I stood up, neatly tucked in my chair, and turned around to leave.

"Wait, Kiera!"

Turning back, I looked to Trey. He was half-stood up, leaning over the table. "Uhh, so, we're cool?"

"Sure." I laughed in disbelief, and turned to leave for the second time when he interrupted me again.

"Really?" Trey half-smiled, seemingly unsure.

"You know, Trey." I began to say, smirking. "You look really hot in that ODST armour."

His eyes widened again in surprise. "Really?" Now he seriously sounded unsure.

Laughing again, I replied. "Ha. No."

* * *

***Keating's POV***

As an AI, it's puzzling to discover something and not immediately have the answer.

After Sarah left the bridge with her nagging questions: "Keating, blablabla"; "Keating, blablablabla" I had to take a break. Not to be rude, but even an AI such as myself can get tired from too many questions.

Sighing, I rummaged virtually through the ship to see where everyone was; Jakob and Sarah each in his and her own respective cabins, whereas Trey and Kiera were together in the Officer's mess.

"Interesting," I murmured to myself. "I wonder what will become of them."

Passing the time I had in slipspace, I ran another system check throughout the UNSC Nightingale, and came up with the same thing as before.

"A virus?" I asked myself. Delving further into the code, I began to immerse in it. "No, not a virus. A program."

I stripped the lines of code apart, and analyzed them. It had access to audio records, video records, and all reports; it transmitted them back to a fixed location on Earth.

Breaking down the firewall that contained the location, I discovered it led Brian Mowry's office.

Unsure why it did, I took a brief millisecond to decide why.

"Brian installed his own software to .. check up on us?"

I sat back a moment, and thought. "Makes sense, in a way .. but why monitor us if we already report back to him?"

I was slightly confused by the program. I would eventually report everything back to Brian anyways ..

"Oh, bother." I closed the system check, and did another personal check. Jakob and Sarah hadn't left their rooms. Kiera left for her room, Trey was in his room, making several heroic poses in his armor.

I decided not to tell the crew, seeing how I was already present in the ship; watching and hearing everything.

Brian probably just wants connections here to stay up-to-date on what we're doing. A plausible reason.

Satisfied, I began looking at deserted UNSC ship wrecks, somewhat busying myself with the data they presented, in hopes that they contained John-117, so that we may all returned home without trouble.


	6. Saraii II

_Chapter Six: Sarai II_

***Trey's POV***

"So, that's it then?"

Keating nodded. "That's the planet. It once housed an ONI research base, but that went dark over a century ago. It was a highly classified base, and the single record of the base was lost for 95 years. When it was recovered, the war was still raging-"

"I don't care," I said, looking over to the AI. "History isn't something that I really care for."

The AI raised an eyebrow. "Really? Yet you can name most of the older famous actors, some dead for over five centuries."

I shrugged. "Just a talent, I guess."

"Well, there's some good news and some bad news," Jakob said as he walked into the bridge, clad in his arctic ODST armor. "Which do you want first?"

"Well, bad news first. That'll make me depressed, then the good news can cheer me up."

He rolled his eyes behind his unpolarized visor. "Bad news is that we've picked up Covenant signatures on the planet. The good news, is that-"

"-that they're undergoing their training," Keating finished. "There are a few officers, and two Generals planetside, but the rest are trainees. Should you come into conflict, you may be able to stand your ground."

Jakob sighed. "Thanks, Keating. That's almost exactly what I was going to say."

The AI smiled. "Just reminding you that I am part of the ship."

"So," I said, pointing out the window at the giant ball of ice and snow that we would have to land on. "That's the planet that supposedly holds the Master Chief."

"That's the theory," Jakob acknowledged. "And we're going to be the ones that bring him home." He paused, letting that sink in. "So, let's head to the armory to pick out some weapons. The ladies should be done changing into the armor."

"I already know what weapon I'm taking."

"No rocket launchers."

"Damn it."

I was already shivering when they opened the back hatch of the Pelican. The first thing I saw was white. Snow covered pretty much everything on the whole planet. Off in the distance, I could see the contrasting black of some craggy mountains, but that was it.

"So, where's this ship that we're here for?" I asked, scanning the landscape passing beneath us. We were still a few hundred meters off the ground. "I assume that we shouldn't be looking for a giant neon sign or anything."

An aerial view of the terrain suddenly appeared on my HUD. The Pelican was marked with all four of our IFF tags, and the ship looked like a small dot. Then the view zoomed out where I couldn't even see the Pelican. "The remains of the wrecked frigate are exactly 342.54 meters from our designated landing zone," Keating explained, highlighting a small area of snow on the map. "Heavy snow has completely submerged the frigate in snow, thus making entry difficult. However, the ship is at an angle, so at the highest part of the ship the snow is only four feet deep, making it the best entrance."

Jakob shifted in his seat, tightly grasping his DMR. "And what's the catch?"

"The catch is that the entrance is inside of the Covenant's training ground." Keating then added a red circle on the map. "This is the Covenant's territory. Your best bet would be to navigate around it, but if that fails then you might have to go straight through it. And trust me, that's not what you want."

"Agreed," Sarah said from the cabin. "Should it come to that, you got anything for the hingeheads?"

"I can bring the ship down into atmosphere and fire some of the air-to-ground missiles at them," Keating answered. "But you should use the Pelican before it comes to that. It's armed with a machine gun and some rockets. That should be enough to get you out of that situation, if you leave someone to pilot it, of course."

Sarah turned to her daughter. "You'll be staying here for the duration of the mission, okay?" Kiera nodded. "You know how to fly this, right?"

"I can, but if you need some firepower then I'll need a copilot."

Jakob looked at me from behind his unpolarized visor. "That's why you'll be staying here as well," he told me. "I think we already went over that, though."

I nodded, unbuckling the strap and rising to my feet. At first, it was a bit difficult to have to adjust to walking onboard a moving vehicle, but using the handles built into the roof I was able to keep from flying out the back.

I pulled the BR55 from my back and secured it onto the weapon rack behind the cabin. "When are we touching down?" I asked, peering into the Pelican's cockpit. "We're almost there, right?"

"Relax, we're beginning to descend now," Sarah assured me, adjusting some of the controls. "ETA is five minutes."

"Where exactly are we landing? There's nothing out here that looks safe."

"That old ONI base that was here," Kiera answered. "It's the only place that we could find where the weight of the Pelican wouldn't sink down to where we couldn't get it out."

I shrugged. It made sense. "So...Sarah," I started, hesitating on whether or not to call her Mrs. Free, "You've had military experience, right?"

She nodded. "I fought the aliens during the war. Given it was mostly piloting, but I did do a bit of combat on the ground."

"Were you good?"

"Of course. I'm still alive to tell about it, aren't I?"

She did have a point there. "I just thought I'd ask. I'll need you to keep Jakob from doing something stupid and getting himself killed."

"No problem. And you might want to return to your seat and strap yourself in again. We're about to come down for the landing."

I returned to my seat and buckled up. The Pelican was roughly fifty feet off the ground now, and still getting slower and slower. The back landing gear extended out, and the Pelican came to a sudden stop in mid air, before lowering to the ground.

"We've arrived at our destination," Sarah said over the Pelican's intercoms. "We hope you enjoyed flying with _Nightingale _Airlines, and we hope you fly with us again."

"That has to be the most overused joke there is," Jakob muttered, unstrapping himself and standing up. He checked the DMR's clip, before putting it on his back. Grabbing his ammo bag from the netting above his seat, Jakob slung it over his shoulder and jumped out into the snow. The snow came halfway up to his knees. "It's not as deep as I was expecting."

Sarah joined him in the snow. "We're on the landing pad. Once we're off and into the open it'll get a lot deeper then. Some parts maybe even up to our necks."

Their camo armor made them almost disappear. Up close, I could still make out the gray splotches, but that's pretty much all. "So, um...have a good time," I said, waving. Kiera walked up beside me to see them off as well.

Sarah pointed at me. "Kiera, if he tries to do anything inappropriate, I give you full permission to punch him in the balls."

"Hey!" I protested. "I'm not-"

"Sarah, he's my kid. You don't get to give permission," Jakob said. "Kiera, if he tries anything funny, I give you full permission to _shoot _him in the balls."

I groaned and leaned against the wall. We hadn't even been on this planet for more than five minutes, and already I was getting the normal bullcrap that I was used to. I looked down at the piece of armor covering the lower region of my torso. "This thing is bulletproof, right? I want to be sure in case of a misunderstanding."

Jakob sighed and turned back to the wastes of snow. "Trey, I would come over there and cuff you on the back of the neck, like normal, but I have far more important things on my mind right now." He started walking away. Sarah shot one last look back at us and then ran to catch up to him. Kiera and I watched as they got smaller and smaller until they disappeared on the horizon.

"Are you getting that feeling?" Kiera asked, eyes despondately on the place where her mother had vanished.

"What feeling?"

"That you may never see them again."

I shrugged. "I used to get that feeling all the time, back whenever I did a space walk into a ruined ship. I always got the feeling that I would float away or the ship would malfunction or explode or something, leaving me stranded in space. But, eventually I outgrew that feeling. It became replaced with another feeling. Horror."

She looked up at me with a look of small interest. Her mind was still on the fact that her mother could be killed in the next few hours, but she was trying to ignore it. "Horror?"

"Some of the ships still had their dead aboard. There's no oxygen, bacteria, or anything in space so in breached ships the dead never decomposed." I sighed. This was getting to the point of where I didn't want to continue. "I saw bodies thirty years old that still held the looks of pain and fear of when they died."

Kiera looked up at me, sympathy across her face. Whether or not it was fake or real, I couldn't tell. Given the circumstances, I went with read. "That's horrible," she said. "I don't think I could keep my sanity for long after seeing something like that."

I shrugged. "The only reason that I'm still mentally stable is that I have seen far worse than that. My mind can't even understand what I saw that day. It was just too..."

"Do you want to...um talking about it?"

I shook my head, staring off into space, lost in the horrid memory. "I can't." I returned my attention to the present. "So, um...what do we do now?"

"I guess we wait," Kiera replied, walking back to the cabin. "I need to give you the basic rundown of how the weapons work should the event that we need them arise."

Figuring that I had nothing better to do, I followed her to the cabin to learn how to use the Pelican's destructive weaponry.

To be honest, it was a lot easier than I had initially thought. This screen controls the machine gun, this one controls the missiles, and this one sent out a flare, to sum it up. I was glad that I was in and out within ten minutes.

I exited the Pelican, jumping from the troop hatch on the crisp snow. It crunched under my feet, and I sank down to my knees. "I thought that this would've been much deeper," I muttered to myself, wading forward a few feet. "After all, this whole planet is a giant snowball."

"Actually, you're walking on a layer of more solid snow under the top layer," Keating corrected. I could sense the annoyance on his face from all the way down here. "The planet orbits the sun at a perfect distance; the lower layers remain cool enough to say together, while the top layers melt away and are replaced simultaneously. So, the planet isn't a giant snowball. Sorry to kill your fun."

At first, I was annoyed by the AI always eavesdropping on our conversations, but at least this time he had given me a somewhat decent idea. Several seconds later, I held my creation in my hand. "This is going to be fun."

Keating sighed. "Really Trey?" he asked, his voice sounding as if he were tired and stressed. Probably had something to do with running the op and commenting on my newly formed plan. "You have far more important this to focus on at the moment."

I shrugged. "I know. I'm just really bored, and this is a really good idea." I turned back to the Pelican. "Hey Kiera! Can you come out here for a moment?"

"What is it, Trey? I'm busy," Kiera replied.

"Just trust me, you need to see this."

Kiera walked out of the cabin and over to the edge of the troop bay. She had her hands folded across her chest, and if I could see her face I knew that it would probably show a sign of agitation. "What so important?"

"Surprise!" I shouted, hurling my secret weapon at her. The snowball impact dead on her helmet, and she staggered back a step or two.

Kiera groaned as she wiped the snow off her visor. "Really? Trey, you're so immature." She turned and walked back into the Pelican, leaving me standing there alone, with everything still execpt for the falling snowflakes.

"What did I tell you?" asked Keating, his 'I-told-you-so' tone dominant. "I told you that that wasn't going to go over well, and that you should have abandoned the action."

"You never said that," I corrected. Believe it or not, it's actually quite satisfying to correct an artificial intelligence. "All you said was that I had more important things to worry about. You never said one thing about that being a bad idea."

There was a silence. Wait, did I actually have Keating at a loss for words? "Oh, um sorry..." Keating apologized. "Jakob and Sarah needed me for a few seconds." Ah damn. It was a nice thought anyway. "But, I implied that it was a bad idead by saying that you needed to focus on more important things, did I not?"

I shook my head. "Whatever, I'm sure there are more important things than fighting with an AI. And I'm sure that there's something more important that you need to be doing, rather than aruguing with me, right?"

"Trey, I'm sensing that you're upset," Keating said, opting not to answer my question. "You're blood pressure seems to have risen slightly, and your sudden increase in tone validate my point. May I ask what is making you upset? Perhaps I could assist you in rectifying it."

"Like you care."

"Well, we can do this the hard way, or you can tell me. Your choice," Keating offered.

"It's none of your business, Keating," I almost yelled. "Why don't you stop bothering me, and make sure that this operation is running smoothly?"

The AI tsked. "You've gone from upset to aggressive. However, I noticed that the first signs of you becoming upset was right after you were called immature. Perhaps this sudden change in emotion has something to with Miss Kiera?"

Let me ask a simply question. Have you ever wanted to punch someone in the face, but they were in space and you were on the planet? If so, don't you just hate that feeling of hate that you get towards that person, one that you can't exact any anger on?

"Look, I told you to stay out of it. Don't make me-"

"Fair enough," Keating interrupted. "I will let this topic drop. But before I leave you, I need to inform you that Sarah and Jakob are on their way back to the Pelican. Their initial route was cut off by a Covenant patrol, and I suggested an alternate route through the remains of the old ONI base." Keating then held to his promise, and disconnected from the comms.

Okay, I know that he could still hear us and talk to us, but at least he wasn't on my private channel bugging me about something.

I folded my arms and looked up at the pale gray sky, watching the snowflakes fall the to ground. It had been awhile since I had last seen a sight like this. Hell, I could distinctly remember the time. It was on Reach, and Josh, Amber, Krystal, Lucas, and I had gone camping up in the mountains over a year ago. It was also the day when the Covenant attacked. But that's another story for another time.

"I wish I had some hot chocolate," I muttered, still looking up at the endless cascade of white dots falling like ash from a volcano.


End file.
